Young Squire Delgato,
A week or so back we watched a you tube in a thread where they were chasing down a wounded cape that was hit with a crossbow bolt.
They went after him with a 375 and an 06 along with a handfull of unarmed tag alongs. When they found the cape they delivered 6 shots on him and had one guy stompted on.
It was universal in opinions that the ph was a clod for a few reasons, but one was that he wasn't carrying enough gun to get the job done and bust that animal up and stop it.
So why would you want to carry a gun that fires a round that is universally known to not have enough ass to stop a cape who have the tendance to walk around on a daily basis in a bad mood?
Is it your personal knowledge of the lack of stopping power of the 375 that brings the joy to your heart that yours holds 7 rounds ?
As you well know I am a fan of the 458, but in all honesty zI consider it the absolute minimum for all dangerous game no matter what size they are as they ain't called "dangerous" cause they are just fuzzy and misunderstood.
Dear Von S
,
You raise an excellent point about the .375 HH Magnum lacking the punch to ALWAYS stop a charging Elephant or buffalo . The autobiography of two very famous hunters tends to agree with you . The only two Elephant Hunters who actually used ONLY the .375 HH Magnum as their primary back up Rifle are Wally Johnson and Harry Manners of Mozambique. And even then , reading their books give one a good idea about the limitations of the .375 HH Magnum in extreme situations . Wally used to own one Winchester Model 70 in .375 HH Magnum which he used his entire life. His book is filled with stories about him needing to shoot an elephant 5 or 6 times with 300 grain Kynoch full patch round nosed bullets. He needs as many as 8 shots from a .375 HH Magnum ( and on a couple of occasions , this needs to be backed by a couple of extra shots from a client's .458 Winchester Magnum FN Browning pushfeed ) to bring down Cape Buffalo , at times. He actually gets gored through the leg and almost bleeds to death on an incident in 1959 involving an angry cape buffalo who his .375 HH Magnum fails to stop.
Harry's book has less unfortunate events ( though he does have trouble putting down two Elephants and cape buffalo ). Like Wally , he also used a .375 HH Magnum . He owned and used 4 Winchester Model 70 rifles in this caliber. However , Harry always had his native hunter, Chisulo or Jonas , armed with a Spare Winchester Model 70 . When Harry would take a shot at an elephant or buffalo , he always had his native hunter shoot the animal in the vitals simultaneously. So it was basically two rifles which were being fired simultaneously. Harry Later told Tony Sanchez Arino that he would have preferred the .404 Jeffery or the .416 Rigby if their Ammunition was widely available in Mozambique. But since they weren't , his choice of the .375 HH Magnum was more due to economics , than stopping power. Your school of thought mirrors many old school hunters , such as Terry Irwin ( whom l recently had the luxury to correspond with , on a letter regarding rifles for game . He tends to agree a lot with your view
)
. My reason for choosing a .375 HH Magnum is because :
1) It's what l have
2) I like the versatility aspect of it. Africa isn't the only place where l will hunt. I also hunt in the States , Australia and Europe. A .375 HH Magnum can cover all those applications . As you pointed , it may not be the best for the meanest thick skinned critters ... But think of it , like a Swiss Army knife or a Leatherman multitool. It can do everything passably well. But doesn't do anything exceptionally well .
3) Prosperity only dawned upon me in the last two years , and for many years , the .375 HH Magnum Winchester Model 70 was the ONLY rifle which l had ( couldn't afford another
) . So l chose a gun which l could make do with , for everything. It was only in the last 2 years , that l have been able to start supplementing my Battery with 2 shotguns and 2 more rifles ( making a total of 5 guns at the moment , although this will increase hopefully
)
4) I am a client hunter and not a PH , and l have no illusions of trying to be one ( no matter how much l look up to Professional Hunters ). I will do only as my PH tells me to do and not act like a smart know it all. I will only take the shots on my Cape Buffalo when my PH gives me the green signal. For a PH however , a .375 HH Magnum would be a piss poor choice as a PRIMARY backup rifle , since PHs tend to have to shoot charging animals rather than undisturbed animals and need more wallop.
5) I am in the process of building a custom rifle project. I wanna build an 11.2 × 72 mm Schuler ( 401 grain bullet) on a BRNO ZKK - 602 action . I like the ballistics of the caliber and someday , l would like very much to revive it as l believe it should not have been allowed to die out in 1939 . It might be a very ambitious desire , but hey , you only live once , right ? I may be needing to consult you once in a while , as you are both a hunter AND a gunsmith
. If l succeed , l will use the 11.2 × 72 mm Schuler on an Elephant or another cape buffalo someday ( but probably not for my 2020 Safari ).
Finally , your choice of a .458 Winchester Magnum in a Custom rifle is a sound one. According to Terry Irwin , who owned and used a .458 Winchester Magnum Mannlicher Shoenauer with a 26 inch Barrel as his primary big game rifle , a rifle with a 26 inch Barrel can help a .458 Winchester Magnum bullet reach it's true ballistics
without any of the famous underpowered issues which plague the .458 Winchester Magnum's reputation.
Love your input as always and learn slot from you .
Hoss
. I never heard anyone say they needed less bullets
